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Floating homeless shelter opens

City Hall follows up on its promise of a 'botel' style facility on Vltava

By Jeff White
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 7th, 2007 issue

RENÉ JAKL/THE PRAGUE POST
Transforming an old freight boat into accommodation for up to 250 people cost the city 21 million Kč.
Almost three months after raising some eyebrows with its proposal to turn an old freight boat into a floating homeless shelter, City Hall opened a newly renovated facility on the banks of the Vltava River.
Officials say word about the shelter will soon spread, but, in its first weekend of operation Feb. 3–4, the 250-bed facility was operating at about half capacity, according to Petra Lakatošová, head of the Prague branch of Naděje, a nationwide chain of homeless shelters.
It is located beside Štefánikův most, the same bridge City Hall is currently renovating, raising some questions as to whether access to the new facility will be hindered.
City officials declined to comment, saying only that demand for the shelter will increase shortly.
“It’s obvious that information that there is a new place for accommodation is spreading around very quickly among the homeless,” said Jiří Janeček, a counselor at the shelter. “That’s why we’re expecting that the number of people looking for such services could rise considerably.”
City Hall’s delivering on a promise seems, at least in part, to be an effort to avoid the scramble of last year, when bitter cold temperatures sent officials looking for a quick solution for the massive shortage of beds in shelters for the homeless.
For almost two months last year, City Hall set up a tent city in Letná park that housed more than 700 homeless people.
Temperatures have been mercifully warmer this year. Still, activists say, while opening the new floating shelter indeed helps, there is still a critical lack of places for people without homes to go.
There are 5,000–6,000 homeless in Prague, according to estimates. There are about 850 beds, including the new ones on the Vltava.
“The capacity is clearly insufficient,” Wolf has said.
City Hall has said at least 1,500 beds in shelters are needed, plus 300–400 more in the coldest months.
The smell of new wood
The floating shelter cost the city some 21 million Kč ($964,600) to outfit.
It’s a long, narrow facility with makeshift heating and plywood walls. Rooms spread out along long hallways both on the boat’s main floor and below the water line.
Each room has eight neat bunks. Halls are equipped with showers and toilets. There is a common area with tables, and an area with emergency capacity and a medical dispensary.
On its opening night, a handful of staff members huddled around tables, making last-minute preparations.
Six Naděje volunteers will staff the facility. The organization was a consultant to City Hall on the project, and in return officials approached it to run the facility.
The shelter will remain open year round, but Lakatošová said for the time being, it will have limited hours, opening only at night, between 7:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m.
At first, plans to build a floating shelter raised concerns about safety, not least of all because some homeless are known to turn up to shelters drunk or under the influence of other substances and could pose a risk for a facility that is moored on a river.
But Lakatošová said that, so far, there haven’t been any incidents.
“There were no problems on the first night,” she said. “Guests didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t damage anything.”
For now, City Hall intends to continue mooring the boat at its current location. Shelters are a divisive issue for districts, which often speak out against building more homeless shelters and resource centers downtown because, they contend, that will bring more homeless to the city center.
They often suggest building more centers in the suburbs; of course, residents in the suburbs object largely on the same grounds: They don’t want a certain element in their neighborhoods.
There have been no reports to date of protests from Prague 7, where the floating shelter is moored.
Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Jeff White can be reached at jwhite@praguepost.com


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